The High Church is situated at the top of Church Hill in the centre of Paisley, and is a prominent landmark. It was built around 1750 and was designed by John Whyte, a member of the town council. Seats in the new church were allocated by public auction! The magnificent steeple was added later in 1770, and rises in five stages to an obelisk spire. On the ground close to the church there are symbols embedded in the whinstone pavement. The symbols are of a handkerchief, a pair of glasses and a heart. Local legend says that this marks the spot where a stonemason fell while working on the spire.
In 1991 the congregation of the High Church joined with the congregations of St John's Church and Paisley Congregational Church to form the Oakshaw Trinity Church.

Martyrs' Parish Church is at Woodside and was built in 1835. Martyrs' Memorial Church is in Broomlands Street and was built in 1848.

The martyrs for whom these churches are named were James Algie and John Park, who in 1685 refused to swear an oath renouncing the Covenant and accepting the King's supremacy in all civil and religious matters. They were hanged at Paisley cross, and buried in common ground at Gallowgreen in the town's west end. Later they were re-interred in the first grave in what became Martyrs' Parish Church graveyard. A monument in their honour was erected there in 1835.

In 1843, the minister of Martyrs' Parish Church, along with many other ministers and a portion of the congregation, split from the Church of Scotland to become part of the Free Church of Scotland. They continued to worship in the church until expelled from the building in 1846. They worshipped in a variety of hired venues until their new church was built in 1848 in Broomlands Street. It was originally named the Free Martyrs' Church, later becoming the Martyrs' United Free Church, and then finally the Martyrs' Memorial Church in 1929.